NEW TOWN (2021-ongoing)
Digital Medium Format, Archival Pigment Prints, 21x28”—33x44”
ON THIS PAGE:
Gif from the series New Town, 2022
PROJECT STATEMENT
New Town explores the relationship between human aspiration and ecosystem, and our capital imbalance with nature as resource. This is a story spun along Newtown Creek, a four-mile estuary and Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site separating Brooklyn from Queens, blocks from where I lived for close to a decade. Once a fertile stream, channelization for commercial port traffic made it one of the most utilized—and polluted—industrial sites in the United States. Here, ecology meets manufacturing, oil refineries and spills, waste transfer and metal scrapping, placemaking and remediation, and—with a new wave of urban development—the loaded promise of renewal.
Working between genres of magical realism and ecological noir, I seek visual expressions of the uncanny to raise questions of a recognizable future. Though these pictures were made at a particular location, this story is not site-specific. New Town is our town—an enmeshed cosmos where everything coexists, where permanent plastics swim with the fish, where humanity produces to consume and humans consume to live, and beauty remains in the unviable breakdown. I aim to make open images from this place of affection, imagination, and acknowledgement.
project portfolio
Click image link below to view the body of work.
SELECTED documentation
documentation of select exhibitions and publications
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A solo show in downtown Lawrence featuring 9 images from my series New Town, along with a wall-sized archival map image of the Newtown Creek area. The show coincided with downtown Lawrence’s July Final Friday art walk.
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JURIED. Volume 3 of a three volume set of zines that address our shared experience of Capitalism. This volume focuses on environmental issues through the lens of 12 international artists including my work from New Town. My image “Wire Pile” was selected for the cover.
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JURIED. The fingers of Capitalism touch every aspect of our lives—the 18 artists in this group exhibition explore our collective experience living in its grasp. The works, curated by Priscilla Briggs from submissions for an international call for photo- based imagery and drawings for the zine series Dollars and Sense, explore themes of consumerism, globalization, social justice and the environment. This exhibition at Rosalux Gallery included two of my prints from New Town and coincided with a 3 volume zine launch of the work.
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INVITED. An exhibition curated by sculpture artist and naturalist Bill McBride, featuring 29 artist perspectives on modern threats to life on Earth. The show included four pieces from my series New Town, and also featured a Stickwork installation by nationally renowned sculpture artist Patrick Dougherty. Over three thousand visitors experienced the exhibition during its run.
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JURIED. Context is Filter Space’s annual survey exhibition of contemporary photography. Context 2022 featured the work of 30 artists juried from a pool of nearly 300 submissions, selected by Frances Jakubek, Director of Bruce Silverstein Gallery in New York. My large-scale piece “Cosmos” (33x44”) was included in the show and used by Filter Space for online promotion of the exhibition.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
EXHIBITIONS
2022 New Town, Ampersand, Lawrence, KS (Solo)
2022 Dollars and Sense: 3 Volumes, Rosalux Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
2022 What on Earth is Happening?, Mary R. Koch Arts Center, Wichita, KS (Juror: Bill McBride)
2022 Context 2022, Filter Space, Chicago, IL (Juror: Frances Jakubek)
PUBLICATIONS
2022 Dollars and Sense Zine Vol II, RoseBramble Books, Minneapolis, MN
RESIDENCIES
2021 International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP), New York (June - August) (began work while in residence)
PRESENTATIONS
2022 PhotoLucida Portfolio Walk, Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR
AWARDS & HONORS
2022 University of Kansas, General Research Fund Award